Drawings from author Roald Dahl to be sold at auction
Pictures drawn for a book about the life of children's author Roald Dahl are going on auction after being found in an envelope. The famous author drew the images himself using a black ballpoint pen for Boy, which was published in 1984.The book is the only which Dahl produced illustrations for during his long career. The sketches, which are expected to be sold on Wednesday, are part of a collection estimated to sell for between £20,000 and £30,000.
In his book, Dahl describes some of the things he got up to as a child, including playing a prank with his friends on the local sweetshop owner Mrs Pratchett by putting a dead mouse in a gobstopper jar.Dahl drew a mouse lying on top of the sweets with its legs in the air to illustrate the naughty act.
The drawings were found in an envelope belonging to Ian Craig, who ended up creating the final illustrations for the author's memoir. He stepped in as Dahl's usual illustrator, Quentin Blake, was away on holiday at the time. "The publication of Boy was on a very tight publication schedule," said Ian Craig's widow Kate. "As Quentin Blake was away on holiday, Ian asked Dahl if he could help with the illustrations."Dahl ended up producing a variety of sketches which Ian used as inspiration for his own drawings."
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BBC News
2 hours ago
- BBC News
28 Years Later review: Zombie-apocalypse horror is a 'never-dull' monster mash-up
Alex Garland and Danny Boyle have reunited for a follow-up to their 2002 classic. It has visual flair, terrifying adversaries and a scene-stealing performance from Ralph Fiennes. 28 Years Later is part zombie-apocalypse horror, part medieval world-building, part sentimental family story and – most effectively – part Heart of Darkness in its journey toward a madman in the woods. That mashup is not necessarily a bad thing, since most of those parts work so well in this follow-up to the great 2002 film 28 Days Later, about a virus that decimates London. The new film is one of the year's most anticipated largely because it comes from the original's creators, director Danny Boyle and screenwriter Alex Garland. It glows with Boyle's visual flair, Garland's ambitious screenplay and a towering performance from Ralph Fiennes, whose character enters halfway through the film and unexpectedly becomes its fraught soul. But as with Frankenstein's monster, the seams are conspicuous, making for a patchwork that is never dull but not as fully engaging as it might have been. A lot has changed in the 23 years since the original, of course. Boyle, then known for smart indie films like Trainspotting, went on to win an Oscar for Slumdog Millionaire. Garland, then a novelist and screenwriter – 28 Days was his first – is now the director of politically pointed films including Civil War. In 28 Years Later, the central problem is that Garland's political bent and Boyle's commercial instincts don't entirely mesh. The world they have created is specific and impressive though, starting with an island where people have survived the decades since the outbreak by isolating themselves from the still-plague-ridden mainland of England, reached by a causeway that can only be walked across at low tide. It is a community that might have existed in the Middle Ages. Without 21st-Century resources, they make their own arrows for weapons and use wood for fuel. Aaron Taylor-Johnson is impressively solid as Jamie, a harried but responsible husband and father. Jodie Comer plays his wife, Isla, bedridden and occasionally delirious in this community which has no doctor to diagnose her. Mostly, Comer has to look woeful. Isla can barely remember why Jamie is about to take their son, Spike (Alfie Williams), on a ritualistic trip to the mainland. It is time for him to make his first kill of an infected creature, a survival tactic he will need to know. Boyle takes full advantage of his striking technical skills in the father-son hunting scenes, which are pure zombie action-horror, full of kinetic camera movements and quick cuts as Jamie and Spike race through the woods, shooting arrows and trying to outrun the infected. The creatures are officially not zombies, as much as they look and act that way, but victims of the same blood-borne virus that caused people to become full of rage in the original film, turning them into lumbering, mush-brained marauders. Decades later they have morphed. Some, called the Slow-Lows, look like hippos crawling on all fours. Others are faster and smarter than ever. All are naked, caked in dirt, and spout geysers of blood when an arrow hits them. The danger feels visceral. Some stylish flourishes briefly comment on this embattled world. A scratchy, ominous 1915 recording of the Rudyard Kipling poem Boots, about infantrymen, (the same used in the film's trailer) is heard over recurring images of war, from the Crusades to the 20th- Century World Wars. Text at the start of the film tells us that Europe managed to push the virus away, quarantining it in Britain, which has been abandoned by the rest of the world. French and Swedish boats patrol the waters to enforce the quarantine. But that politically acute theme, which might have been so resonant with the issue of isolationism today, goes nowhere. Spike, whose story is so central, is a bland character. A thread of the narrative about the boy and his mother strains for emotion and includes a twist about a pregnant infected woman that is ludicrous even for a horror film. And separated from the original in every way except its source story, for a long stretch the film lands as a more visually stunning, less emotionally rich variation on The Last of Us. But it takes on a quieter, more psychological tone and becomes infinitely better when Fiennes arrives. It's here that Boyle and Garland truly elevate and reimagine the genre. Fiennes's character, Kelton, lives on the mainland and was once a doctor. Spike believes he might be able to help his mother, although Jamie warns that everyone knows Kelton is insane. Fiennes plays him with a shaved head, a dash of wit, and skin that looks orange. "Excuse my appearance. I paint myself in iodine," he politely says when he first meets Spike and Isla. "The virus doesn't like iodine at all." (I did wonder how he got so much iodine after all those apocalyptic years, but let's not be pedantic about it.) And he shows them his lovingly designed temple, with tall columns made of bones elegantly laid out alongside a tower of skulls. It is, he explains, a Memento Mori, a reminder that we all die. Each skull reminds him that it was once part of a living person in the flesh, not a monster. Creepy, yes, but Fiennes also makes Kelton gentle, a man of deep compassion, who regrets that there are no longer hospitals where the sick like Isla can be treated. He is the most humane person on screen, which is largely down to Fiennes's vivid, layered performance. One of the film's strengths is that you can leave debating just how unhinged Kelton really is. 28 Years Later is the first in a projected new trilogy. The second part, written by Garland and directed by Nia DaCosta, has already been shot and is scheduled to be released in January. That one is called 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, an excellent sign considering how Fiennes's character runs away with this imaginative but uneven film. ★★★★☆ 28 Years Later is released in cinemas in the UK and US on 20 June. -- If you liked this story sign up for The Essential List newsletter, a handpicked selection of features, videos and can't-miss news, delivered to your inbox twice a week. For more Culture stories from the BBC, follow us on Facebook, X, and Instagram.
The Sun
2 hours ago
- The Sun
Bay City Rollers star reveals ‘harrowing' sex abuse by band's ‘bully, predator' manager who ‘plied stars with drugs'
STUART 'Woody' Wood told how he hid the trauma of his abuse by paedo manager Tam Paton for 50 years, saying: 'I chose not to let it shape my life.' The Bay City Rollers icon, 68, said he was determined not to let the sicko 'win' as he opened up for the first time about how he too was a victim of the beast. 4 4 4 4 Burly Paton bossed the band during the height of their 70s fame, when they had No1 hits including Saturday Night, Bye Bye Baby and Shang-A-Lang. He was later fired by the group before being jailed for three years in 1982 for gross indecency with teenage boys. In his autobiography Mania, released on Thursday, former pop-pin up Stuart brands the late fiend a 'true monster' and explains why he kept his own suffering a secret for five decades. Stuart wrote: 'I met Tam when I was 16 years old. He was intimidating and a bully, and all the disgusting things said about him are accurate. 'He was a predator. He abused me as he did others. 'It was a horrific and harrowing time. The drugs he plied us with were part of that control. I met Tam when I was 16 years old. He was intimidating and a bully, and all the disgusting things said about him are accurate 'My take is that to have a healthy mind, you have to let some things go, as much as it might pain you to do so. 'So, when Tam's squalid little life came to an end in 2009, I stopped thinking about him. 'He was a terrible human being, but the way I see it, he doesn't get to define me. 'Tam f******g Paton doesn't get to win.' Original lead singer of The Bay City Rollers returns 50 years after fall out In 2003, Paton was accused of attempting to rape Rollers guitarist Pat McGlynn in a hotel room in 1977. Police investigated but concluded there was insufficient evidence to take it to court. Depraved Paton claimed he was being targeted because he was gay. After the flabby perv's death from a heart attack in 2019 singer Les McKeown claimed the former manager had also raped him while on tour in America after drugging him. Les — who died at 65 in 2021 — said: 'I was given Quaaludes, a drug for lowering your inhibitions and making you horny. 'Afterwards I felt really used and abused. I never told anybody about it, not even the other guys in the band, because I was ashamed.' Original Rollers singer Nobby Clarke has also claimed the boys were encouraged by Paton to sleep with radio DJ Chris Denning, who jailed for child sex abuse in 2016. Meanwhile, founder Alan Longmuir revealed in 2018 how Paton had 'friends in low places' and warned 'his depravity ran deeper than we know.' However, Stuart maintains he did not talk about Paton's abuse with either Les or Alan, even when they reformed the Rollers together 10 years ago. Speaking from his home in Edinburgh, the songwriter, guitarist and producer said: 'We never discussed it - any of us - it just happened. 'We were all survivors, but with Les it felt like it hit him harder. 'It's not like I locked all those experiences away, stuffed down the bad memories, pretending they didn't happen. BAND'S TROUBLED PAST 1974: Stuart 'Woody' Wood joins group to form classic line-up with Alan and Derek Longmuir, Eric Faulkner and Les McKeown. 1975: Bye, Bye, Baby reaches No1. 1978: Les quits soon after being booted off stage by Woody during a gig in Tokyo. 1979: Manager Tam Paton is fired before Rollers split. 1982: Paton is jailed for three years for sexually abusing ten boys over three years. 2003: Cops decide there is not enough evidence to prosecute Paton over accusations he tried to rape former Rollers guitarist Pat McGlynn. 2004: The sicko is fined £200,000 for drug dealing after cannabis stash find at home. 2007: Ex-band members sue Arista Records over claims they are owed millions of pounds in unpaid royalties. 2009: Paton dies after a heart attack on the same night £1.5million in drugs and cash are stolen from his Edinburgh pad. 2016: Les McKeown says he was raped by Paton. 2016: Woody sensationally quits the group after a bust-up at T in the Park. 2018: Alan Longmuir passes away aged 70. 2021: Les dies of heart attack at 65. 2023: TV documentary details how Paton controlled and abused band. 2025: Woody releases tell-all autobiography Mania. 'I just choose to not let them shape my life.' Stuart is now the last member of the 'classic' Rollers line-up still performing, with a new single Rollers Forever released next month. A musical of the same name opens at Glasgow's Pavilion Theatre in August. However, the star describes his relationship with Paton as 'complicated' as he even invited his abuser to his wedding to artist Denise in 1997. He added: 'There's an old expression, 'Keep your enemies close'. "I think that was the case with Tam. There was another side of Tam that was funny. 'He could be a lovable rogue.'
Daily Mail
2 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Hugh Laurie's brutal response to podcast host who invited him on as a guest - and the massive disdain he showed for fans of House
A podcast host has shared the brutally honest rejection he received from Hugh Laurie when he asked him to appear on his medically-themed show. Doctor Mike, whose real name is Mikhail Varshavski, is a family medicine physician who launched a podcast named The Check Up With Doctor Mike. The podcast has featured a segment where Doctor Mike reacts to old House episodes and debunks what is medically accurate or not. House saw British actor Hugh, 66, take on the role of the cantankerous Dr Gregory House in the medical drama from 2004 to 2012. During a new episode with Noah Wyle, who played Dr John Carter in ER, Doctor Mike revealed Hugh's shocking reaction when he was asked to come on the podcast. Doctor Mike said: 'We invited Hugh Laurie to our show because a lot of folks like when we do House M.D. reacts. And his staff was like oh this is a good fit. We're going to reach out to him and see what he thinks. 'I'm gonna read you quote-unquote what he said. 'He is not interested in opportunities like this, frankly doesn't care about the audience or reliving the show.' Noah was clearly impressed with Hugh's line, and said: 'That's so baller' While Doctor Mike added: 'It's just such a direct and honest reply. Noah reiterated: 'So baller!' Doctor Mike added: 'Not just that he won't do your show, he just doesn't ever wanna be House M.D. ever again.' Noah insisted he is much more amenable, and said: 'I'm a gemini, middle child pleaser. I'll answer any question you'll ask me.' Referencing his part in The Pitt, Doctor Mike said: 'But you do care about the audience. In fact, it's driven you to do this new show and continue season two and continue crushing it, representing for us. Noah replied: 'I care about certain audiences.' Doctor Mike asked: 'Okay, and that healthcare audience falls into that mix?' He responded: 'This was scripted as a love letter to first responders and front line workers to say, we recognise what you guys have been going through.' Hugh's response doesn't really come as that much of a surprise as he previously told how starring in US medical drama House turned into a 'nightmare' despite him being the best-paid actor on TV. He was paid a reported £250,000 an episode and won two Golden Globes for his long-running role as curmudgeonly Dr Gregory House. But he suggested to the Radio Times in 2013 that his huge success became 'a gilded cage', with the actor even fantasising about having an accident just so that he could take a few days off. While filming the Fox show, Laurie had his car windows tinted to avoid being snapped by phone cameras and stopped buying his own groceries because he 'couldn't stand people photographing the contents of my shopping basket'. He admitted: 'At this distance it all sounds absurd. Ridiculous! After all, what was I doing other than playing about, telling stories with a very nice bunch of people? What could be constricting about that? 'But the repetition of any routine, day after month after year, can turn into a bit of a nightmare. 'I had some pretty bleak times, dark days when it seemed like there was no escape. And having a very Presbyterian work ethic, I was determined never to be late, not to miss a single day's filming. You wouldn't catch me phoning in to say, 'I think I may be coming down with the flu'. 'But there were times when I'd think, 'If I were just to have an accident on the way to the studio and win a couple of days off to recover, how brilliant would that be?'' The actor lived in Los Angeles while his wife and three children stayed in Britain during his time on the show. Asked if readjusting was difficult when he returned home after a near eight-year commitment to House, he replied: 'Yes, but probably more so for the family. 'For me it's been a delight to be back with them, to walk the dog, to listen to music and to read. I'm still appreciating and enjoying it.' Hugh, the former comedy partner of Stephen Fry, said that he might not be physically able to take on such a gruelling role again. At the time, he told the magazine that he would like a job directing, partly because it would allow him to wear his own clothes. 'If the opportunity presented itself, I'm not sure I'd either want or could physically do it. I imagine sportsmen come to a similar crossroads,' he said of taking a lead role in another major, ongoing series. 'Maybe there'll come a day when (footballer) John Terry says, ''I'm not up for the full 90 minutes any more. I can give you 60. Or perhaps I could just come on in the second half?'' The legs start to go and you realise you're feeling the pain a lot more.' He said 'some very good' scripts, 'some not so good and others so weirdly like House that you wonder what they're thinking of' were still pitched to him. He added: 'The big thing is that I'm a decade older than when I got that role. Even then the character was scripted as 10 years younger at 35 - and Fox would have preferred 28, to keep advertisers happy. Now if my name comes up for the lead, there'd be a shaking of heads. 'He could play the dad...'' He said of his future: 'I'd like to do something that involves wearing my own clothes for a while. It's an odd thing to go to work each day and wear someone else's. 'For House I also had a fake wallet with fake money in it, fake keys that didn't open anything and a fake watch that didn't tell the real time. All I can say right now is that there are things of my own I'm developing that I'm pretty excited about.' Hugh, who has spoken previously about suffering from depression, said that he still expects disaster to strike. But he added: 'When you assume that the worst is going to happen, you're freed up from any anxiety about the when and the where of it. Not that I'd ever be foolish enough to think I've finally got the hang of this life business,' The actor, who is gearing up for the release of his second album and set to star in Tomorrowland with George Clooney, said of his Hollywood status: 'One great benefit of not being on TV every week is that people will be a lot less interested in what I have in my supermarket basket. I could even un-tint my car windows - or at least opt for a lighter shade. 'When the ship goes down, the waves very quickly roll over the top of it and attention shifts elsewhere. It's just the natural order of things in TV - in life - and is as it should be.' In March 2020, Hugh briefly revisited the character to tell House fans what his iconic character would have made of the coronavirus pandemic. He tweeted: 'I can't speak for House, obviously – no one's written clever words for me to say – but I'm pretty sure he'd tell you it's not a matter of 'solving' Covid. 'This is an epidemic, not a diagnostic problem. We solve it together by staying apart.' He also praised healthcare workers, saying: 'When this is over, what say we all pitch in and buy health care workers, couriers, hauliers, farmers, millers, grocers, bakers, sewage workers, power workers, teachers, fire fighters and police officers a bottle of something?' he wrote. He later added: 'Thanks to those who've taken the trouble to tell me that decent pay and conditions for essential workers might be preferable to a bottle of something. Bigger thanks to those who knew that's what I meant.' Laurie also said: 'Chin up, everybody. This will work. However irksome it is for us, it's much worse for the virus. Picture the little bugger with its nose against the window, whining.'
